Brooklyn high schoolers ditching Woodstock Academy

Once the top choice of Brooklyn students, Woodstock Academy has seen dozens leave the school for other choices this school year.

FRANCESCA KEFALAS

Once the top choice of Brooklyn students, Woodstock Academy has seen dozens leave the school for other choices this school year.

It’s a trend that has the Board of Education wondering what’s happening at the academy.

“Why are our kids not choosing the academy like they used to?” said Joan Trivella, a member of the Brooklyn Board of Education and the Woodstock Academy board of trustees.

Enrollments have been dropping at the academy, she said. Enrollment has dropped from 1,111 students just a few years ago to about 900, Trivella said. About 100 of those students are international and day students, who pay tuition and attend the school as if it were a private academy.

Quasi-public high schools such as Woodstock Academy, Norwich Free Academy and Bacon Academy accept all students from their sending towns, despite academic achievement.

Jo Ann Gerardi-Voccio, chairman of the Brooklyn Board of Education and a member of the Woodstock Academy board of trustees, said the academy is not operating like a public school, but more like a private boarding school. That may be making local students feel less welcome, said Gerardi-Voccio, who is also a teacher in Killingly.

“They’re selective of their international students,” Gerardi-Voccio said. “Kids tell me they were told they should leave the academy and attend Killingly (High School).”

Killingly High School had 73 Brooklyn students at the start of the school year, Trivella said. That number has ballooned to 109, all transfers from Woodstock Academy, she said.

Fueling the worries about how students are reacting to the academy are the budgetary concerns associated with student enrollments.

Superintendent Louise Berry said Woodstock Academy charges $11,475 per student, per year for tuition. Killingly High School’s tuition is $10,899. The town also pays capital costs to Killingly for the construction of the new high school.

NFA also has Brooklyn students, and it charges $11,200 annually. Brooklyn, however, does not provide transportation to NFA. Students from Brooklyn also attend Harvard H. Ellis Technical High School and Quinebaug Valley Middle College in Danielson.

She, Trivella and trustees from the other sending towns have asked the academy to investigate cutting its budget.

“There are places they can cut,” Gerardi-Voccio said. “If they increase their budget, then we have to cut something here.”

Berry said of the 105 eighth-graders enrolled at Brooklyn Middle School now, only 56 have declared their school choices as of Jan. 23 and it’s evenly split between Killingly and Woodstock Academy.

Brooklyn resident Doug Henault has a sophomore already at NFA and an eighth-grader who plans to attend the Norwich school. He said he would like to see Brooklyn consider providing transportation to NFA because the school is a viable option for students who do not want to attend Woodstock Academy for whatever reason.

Brooklyn school board member Robert Rossi said he believes the choice is very subjective. For every negative thing he’s heard about the academy, he said, he has also heard positive things.

The district is investigating its high school designations. Any decision will not affect this year’s eighth-graders.

Trivella, who has two eighth-graders, said she thinks some credit for attracting more students should be given to Killingly High School.

“They do a really nice job with their open house now,” Trivella said. “They make the kids feel wanted.”